Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: Observing that it was not a crime to love and teenagers falling in love should not be treated as criminals and sent behind bars, Supreme Court on Tuesday stressed the need to protect mutual romantic relations between adolescents instead of criminalising them under Pocso Act.At a time when the Centre is strongly objecting to the idea of reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 years, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said genuine romantic relations should be on a different footing.”We are facing situations of minors falling in love and they even run away… It is a harsh reality. Same law (Pocso) should not be applied in such cases. Do not treat the minors as normal criminals in case of genuine romantic relations. Social reality should be kept in mind,” the bench said while hearing a batch of petitions filed by NCPCR and NCW challenging various HC orders providing protection to minors who had eloped.The court was also hearing a plea by Bachpan Bachao Andolan challenging Tamil Nadu govt’s circular to police to not make “hasty” arrests under the Pocso Act in cases involving “love affairs and marriages” and stating that arrests under Pocso should be made only after permission from an SP-level officer. Senior advocate H S Phulka said the circular was prone to misuse in case of adults getting into physical relations with minors. The bench, however, said it was for the police to apply its mind on a case-to-case basis. “Nowadays, boys and girls go to the same educational institutions and develop feelings for each other. It is a reality. Can you say that it’s a crime to love and the minors should face rape charges… There are romantic cases where teenagers on the verge of majority run away… don’t read such as criminal cases. It is more traumatic for girls who get separated from boys and see them going to jail…,” the bench said. The court added that parents of girls would often use Pocso to cover up an elopement.The bench said it was strange that bodies meant to protect the interests of children and women were assailing the protection given to minors by HCs. The court said they had no locus standi to file appeals and asked them to take up cases with better causes. SC pointed out that if the court did not protect such a couple, they may be killed for “honour” by their families. “If two minor children are protected by HC, how can NCPCR challenge such an order? It is strange that NCPCR, which is for protecting children, has challenged such an order,” it said.
